Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Your Moment Of Zen

At Christmas, two versions of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' occupied the first and second place in the UK singles chart. The number one slot was taken by X-Factor winner Alexandra Burke; in second place, thanks to an internet campaign, was the lovely and haunting version by Jeff Buckley (Cohen's version came in a number 36). But more lovely than even Jeff Buckley's version of 'Hallelujah' is this song by his father, Tim Buckley, first aired on, of all places, The Monkees TV show (that's Micky Dolenz's voice introducing him).

2 Comments:

Al R said...

I've always thought this was a wonderful song, first via Cohen's original and then Jeff Buckley's lovely cover. I know it's churlish, but I can't help feeling it's been ripped out of my loving hands. As Charlie Brooker said, now it'll be a song that thick people play at their funerals...(I don't quite agree with the sentiment, but I know where he's coming from).

The original and the Buckley cover will survive the karaoke show, I'm sure. There are about 180 cover versions after all. Cohen's live version is pretty good too (with different verses). So is John Cale's (which was used in Shrek, how bizarre is that?).

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